The BEST Mashed Potatoes Recipe (Step-By-Step) (2024)

FAQs

How to make chef quality mashed potatoes? ›

As always, better quality ingredients equals better tasting food. Heavy Cream - While you, hypothetically, could use whole milk or something, I don't recommend it. Part of what makes these the creamiest mashed potatoes is the CREAM! Use the cream, we aren't eating mashed potatoes for our health.

The secret weapon, a good potato ricer (affiliate). This pushes the potatoes into strings, which helps them soak up every bit of the cream and achieve maximum fluffliness.

Place the peeled and cut potatoes into a medium saucepan. Add cold water to the pan until the potatoes are covered by at least 1 inch. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the water. Turn the heat to high and bring the water to a boil.

When it comes to ridiculously creamy restaurant style mashed potatoes, there's not much to it. The secret is just loads of cream and butter. The creamier the mashed potato, the more cream and butter it has in it!

Butter and cream require different temperatures in mashed potatoes. There's no denying that melted butter is a lot easier to mix into mashed potatoes than cold butter, but unfortunately, it's actually not the best idea.

Always start cooking potatoes in cold water and mash them while still warm.

For the very best result every time, always gently warm the butter and milk before adding to the potatoes, rather than adding cold dairy straight from the fridge. Here's why: Warm dairy is absorbed faster and more easily, with less stirring than its cold counterpart.

Mash potatoes with half-and-half or milk using a potato masher. Add in the cream cheese and smash until the cheese melts into the potatoes. Add chives or scallions. Season with salt and pepper, to your taste.

If you want lumpy and light-but-creamy, mash by hand (a ricer-like masher will produce the lightest, least chunky results). If you want gummy (...are those of you out there?), go with the food processor. If you want dense, hefty, and uniform, break out an electric mixer.

How long should I boil potatoes for mashed? ›

Method. Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Add the potatoes and boil for about 15 mins or until tender. Transfer to a colander and drain well, then return to the pan and set over a very low heat for 2 mins to dry completely.

Once you've got hot potatoes, you're almost ready to mash. Drain out any remaining water, add butter and milk and put the lid back on. The potatoes and warm pot will melt the butter and heat the milk. Let them sit for three to five minutes, then mash.

Start with boiling water if you steam potato chunks, rinse with cold water halfway through cooking (starchy or medium starch potatoes). If you submerge the potatoes, start them with cold water with salt, bring just to a boil and simmer until done.

Instead of regular milk, pro chefs generally use a generous helping of buttermilk and plenty of half-and-half or (even better) heavy cream in their potatoes. If you think the bartenders up front are pouring heavy, they've got nothing on the cooks in the back who are in charge of the mashed potatoes.

Soaking potatoes in water helps remove excess starch. Excess starch can inhibit the potatoes from cooking evenly as well as creating a gummy or sticky texture on the outside of your potatoes.

Yukon Gold potatoes are the BA team's top pick for classic mashed potatoes. With gold right there in their name, there is no arguing that they're the (ahem!) gold standard for a mash with a creamy, rich texture.